I turned and ran out of the hospital, out the door and into the street, kept running.

Except I had no place to run to.

Welp.

Bitch stared at me wide eyed, teeth bared, as if all basic human expression had left her as she regarded me.  Regent looked me up and down, turned away, as if in disgust, one fist clenched hard enough to make the area around the long stitched up cut on his arm stand out in white.

Yeeeah, they’re not taking it well.

But how about Grue? Grue, the one Taylor got the closest to besides Tattle. Grue, her romantic interest up until his rejection a week ago. Grue, the leader of the team.

I couldn’t see Grue’s face, could barely make out his body language, but I knew that it would have stung ten times worse than anything else if I could see his expression in that moment.

Sounds about right.

Tattletale was the only one who didn’t look surprised.

Hah! She knew, didn’t she! 😀

I backed away a step, and nobody moved to stop me.  The heroes were preoccupied with Armsmaster, the Undersiders couldn’t or wouldn’t go around the gathered heroes to follow me.

Fair enough, really.

Some of the capes that were in the vicinity were staring at me.  Murmuring.  Panacea was among them, looking at me as though I were from another planet.

Oh man, Panacea must be so confused by this new knowledge, what with how dead set she was about Taylor being a horrible person and all.

And the kicker, that Panacea doesn’t specifically know about? When Taylor did all those things that got Panacea thinking of her like that, she still thought of herself as a hero.

I tried to speak, to say something, even ‘I changed my mind’.  My throat was too dry to form the words.

Armsmaster turned, shouted at the capes who stood watching, “You want to look down on me!?  I tried to save this city, I got closer to killing the fucking Endbringer than Scion!

Yeah, right.

That girl is the person you should be mocking, spitting on!  A wannabe hero without the balls to do anything heroic!  Planning from the start to betray teammates for fame!”

Isn’t… isn’t that literally what you just did? Under the truce, Kaiser, Fenja, Menja… they were all your teammates.

I stepped back, swallowed hard.

“Is this true?”

I turned to look at Grue, but he wasn’t asking me.  The question was for Tattletale.

I mean… fair. Why trust the accused over the fountain of knowledge who is still unambiguously on your side.

“Yeah,” Tattletale confirmed, sighing.

Well. Cat’s out of the bag.

Bitch stared at me wide eyed, teeth bared,

And, uh, Bitch isn’t exactly a cat person.

(I didn’t even set that up on purpose…)

I spoke quickly, “Grue, shut him up.”

Grue raised his hand.  But he didn’t blanket Armsmaster in his darkness.

Yeeah, Grue already noticed that something was up, and now you want him to stop someone from telling you what? Not gonna happen.

“She’s a wannabe hero.  Has been from the start, since the night Lung was first brought into custody.”

Grue’s hand dropped to his side.

I’m also curious about Miss Militia’s reaction. Has Army told her about Skitter?

“I met her that night.  She said she was a hero, that you Undersiders mistook her for a villain.  I didn’t think twice about it until she arranged a meeting with me, the night before the bank robbery.  Told me she had joined your group as an undercover agent, getting the dirt on you so she could hand that group over to us.  Talked to me again the night you raided the fundraiser, out there on the balcony.  Told me if I let her go, she’d get the details on your boss to me.  Guess she hasn’t gotten around to figuring that little detail out, yet.”

Man, if you’d just stopped before that last sentence, you would’ve left Taylor in a lot more trouble than you just did, I think.

The Undersiders know for a fact that Taylor has figured out that detail, about a week ago (or a little more? the timeline is getting a little less solid for me as time goes on, but I do believe they mentioned to Coil that the events of Buzz happened the day after those of Tangle, and the meeting was a week after Purity’s rampage), but now Army implied that she hasn’t gotten back to the Protectorate about it yet.

“The way the Endbringer’s physiology works?  You could detonate a small atom bomb in his face, he’d probably survive.  Take him two or three years to recover, but he’d survive.”

Sheesh.

“Shut up!” Armsmaster raised his head to shout at her.  He stopped, eyes flickering to me.  When he spoke again, his voice was almost calm.  “You don’t know everything.”

That’s true, but the irony is still great.

You don’t know everything either, Army, and one of those things happens to be what Tattletale is all about.

Knowledge is power and her power is knowledge.

No.

“Her,” he pointed a hand at me, “She’s not who you think she is.”

Weeeell shit.

Here we go.

Man, this would be a great time for my occasional hypothesis that Tattle knew all along to turn out true. Not sure the rest of the Undersiders would take it quite as well, though.

“So, I’m guessing you don’t want this getting out,” Tattletale spoke, looking at the heroine, “Let us walk away, I keep my lips sealed.”

“I know you were tired, that you hadn’t slept all last night,” Miss Militia told Armsmaster, ignoring Tattletale, “Frustrated, your dream taken from you.  But to go this far?”

Yeah, damn. I’ve known you were a reputationaholic dickbag for a while but this is quite the leap.

“It was for the greater good,” Armsmaster replied, without a trace of shame or humility, “If it had worked, Leviathan would be dead, the man holding Empire Eighty-Eight together dead.

Aaand it’s a confession.

And are you seriously saying that you going one-on-one with Leviathan would give you better chances of killing him, something even Scion doesn’t seem capable of? Geez, man, you were admittedly awesome in that fight, but get over yourself.

All of us survivors would have been legends, and this city could have risen from the ashes, become something truly great.”

“It didn’t work,” Tattletale spoke, “Couldn’t.”

Hah! I just realized the dramatic irony of me thinking Armmaster would die with a heroic sacrifice to redeem himself. I hope you guys got a good laugh out of that! 😛

“Shut up.  You’ve said enough,” Armsmaster spat the words, looked away from her, breathing hard.

This is what happens when you don’t let her talk.

Legend frowned.

Armsmaster lunged forward, swatting Grue aside with his armored hand.  He shoved Regent aside, reached for Tattletale.

*shakes head sadly*

Army, Army, Army… are you trying to break the truce even further? Right now you’re just up against accusations of breaking the truce. If you attack Tattle, it’s a certainty.

A laser to the right shoulder spun him around, sent him sprawling to the ground.  His armor smoked where the laser had made contact.

Something Legend is well aware of.

“Who!?  Why!?”  Armsmaster flopped over, saw Legend with one open hand aimed at him.  “Legend?”

Miss Militia pointed her handgun at his lower face.

You’ve lost, Army.

Armsmaster scowled at her.

“This is a serious set of accusations,” Legend spoke.

“Sure.”

Absolutely. If any of this is true and provable, Armsmaster’s fucked.

“But it’s speculation.”

Tattletale shrugged, “Take Skitter’s armband.  It’ll have damage from the EMP hit.”

😀 And there’s out potential proof.

“You bitch,” Armsmaster snarled, “This is a lie.”

Wrong Undersider.

“Check the armband,” Tattletale repeated, “And you’ll see the truth.”

“Convenient that this would take days or weeks to check,” Armsmaster spoke.

“True, so how about I just do another announcement?  Tell everyone that’s still wearing an armband an abbreviated version of the same story I just told you?  How do you think they’d react?  If you’re really innocent, I’m sure your name would be cleared eventually, after the test results came back from the armband.

Reminds me of the process Armsy was so pissed about having been through after Taylor rotted Lung’s dick off.

If it’s wrong, we get get in everyone‘s bad books for fucking around with an Endbringer situation.

Sounds solid enough, though either way, Armmaster’s reputation is going to take a hit. Question is whether it would be temporary or permanent.

It just occurred to me that this absolutely falls under “taking advantage of an Endbringer situation”. If Armmaster is found guilty, he’s almost certainly going to the Birdcage.

Hell, I’ll even submit to being detained while you get things checked out.  You can take me from there to jail if I’m wrong.  Either way, you get some jerk in custody.”

Heh.